In continuously operating systems for the production of bakery articles, such as cookies, the bakery articles are conveyed from their production station (which may include a pastry cutting machine, a pastry shaping machine, an extruder, a decorating device and the like) in a plurality of precisely arranged longitudinal rows through an oven to automatically operating packing machines. The bakery articles are fed in columns to the packaging machines from the individual longitudinal rows, and the same number of bakery articles are taken from each column and formed into respective packages. It frequently happens that the weights of the bakery articles in different longitudinal rows differ from each other, for example, because the bakery articles in the side regions of the continuous oven are baked more thoroughly than the others. Deviations in weight can, however, also be produced during production of the bakery articles in the cutting or molding operations. For example, the strip of dough ready for cutting may have differences in weight in the transverse direction due, for example, to mechanical sagging of the dough-strip shaping rollers, or to specific changes in the amount of dough on the lateral hopper walls of dough-strip rollers, or to a thickening of the dough on the sides of the strip of dough or to inadequate flow of the dough on the side walls of the hopper. Finally, non-uniformity of the bakery articles may be due to a different distribution of additives to the dough such as, for instance, nuts, bits of chocolate or the like. Because there may be different weights of the bakery articles in different longitudinal rows, packages can be produced at the outlet of the packaging machines of greatly different weight and/or different package lengths for the same number of bakery articles in each package. Since the weights of the packages must not be less than a minimum weight (according to the law of many jurisdictions) it has been the practice, to form each package with greater overweight than would be necessary based on the average weight of the bakery articles.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, it is known to mix the bakery articles by rearranging them. For this purpose, in a device disclosed in DE-OS No. 33 38 068, a first conveyor is provided which, at a transfer edge, transfers the bakery articles to a second conveyor which has transport channels arranged transverse to the direction of conveyance of the first conveyor. In this arrangement, the bakery articles present in transverse rows on the first conveyor form longitudinal rows in the transport channels of the second conveyor. If, from the longitudinal rows of the second conveyor columns of the baked articles are supplied to packaging machines, then each column contains bakery articles from all longitudinal rows of the first conveyor. As a result, any differences in the weights of the bakery articles within a package are substantially balanced.
The transfer of the bakery articles from the first conveyor to the second conveyor is effected, in the known apparatus, by moving the transfer edge of the first conveyor transversely back and forth over the second conveyor. As soon as the bakery articles on the first conveyor reach the transfer edge they drop with a tilting movement onto the second conveyor. Here there is not only the danger that an edge of the bakery articles may strike against the second conveyor and thereby be damaged, but they may even turn over upon the tilting and then lie upside down on the second conveyor which may impair the packing process. The exact arrangement of the bakery articles is considerably disturbed by the tilting movement, which does not always take place simultaneously, for which reason special guides are necessary for realignment on the second conveyor. Due to the high forces of inertia which occur in the drive apparatus upon the backward and forward movement of the transfer edge, there is an upper limit to the speed of transfer. The known apparatus therefore cannot be used in high-capacity systems operating with a large throughtput.
DE-PS No. 503 471 discloses an apparatus in which an endless air pervious belt cooperates with a suction device to lift cookies or the like from a first conveyor and deposit them on a second conveyor which is moved in the same direction as the first conveyor. This known suction conveyor belt permits a simple transfer process in which no intentional rearrangement or mixing of the cookies takes place.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,581 discloses a decapsulator in which a conveyor belt provided with suction cups is used to lift loaves of bread from capsules present on a first conveyor and place the loaves on a second conveyor which is moved in the same direction above the first conveyor. Upon this decapsulation neither an ordered rearrangement nor a mixing of the baked articles takes place.